Editorial: How The Statesman adapted to COVID-19

September 1, 2020

The Statesman logo. The Statesman has added five multimedia internship positions to its staff, hired an archivist, and built a tech team in order to work better remotely during the fall semester. STATESMAN FILE

When Stony Brook University went remote on March 13, so did The Statesman.

Our newspaper stopped printing for the first time in its 63 year history. With that decision came thousands of dollars in lost ad revenue. If we wanted to survive, we had to adapt. The Statesman was going digital.

This will continue into the fall. We have decided that — out of concern for our staff’s safety — we will only print special issues this semester. These editions will be put together remotely as much as possible.

Our online presence is more robust than ever.

Over the summer, the staff at The Statesman worked tirelessly to prepare for this transition. We added five multimedia internship positions to our staff, hired an archivist and built a tech team. We also created an entirely new position on our editorial board, designed to promote audience engagement in a digital environment.

All of these hires mean new projects coming your way.

The Statesman launched a digital newsletter on Aug. 31. Our readers can now sign up for a weekly breakdown of campus news, delivered directly to their inbox.

We are also onboarding with Spotlight News, a local news aggregator with an emphasis on campus newspapers. Anybody interested will be able to download the free Spotlight News app onto their phone to read any of our content.

Our tech team has a few projects up their sleeves, so stay tuned for more updates. Most recently, they’ve added a virtual classifieds page geared towards Stony Brook University’s campus.

In the meantime, please welcome our new staff members: